In our 40th Anniversary issue of Relix we asked a number of musicians to share the most memorable live performances that they had ever witnessed. Butch Trucks’ deep appreciation for guitarist John McLaughlin led him to a discovery…

Back in the early ‘70s we were in The Apple [New York City] with a night off. Jaimoe and I wanted to go downtown and catch some live music, and on perusing the Voice, we noticed that there was a band featuring John McLaughlin playing. Since we were both very much into Miles’ In a Silent Way, we decided to go. Out came this five-piece band with a drummer playing a four-piece kit with an 18” bass drum and they proceeded to blow like I have never seen music blown in my life. About halfway through the first set, Jaimoe punched me and said, “That’s Billy Cobham.” (We knew him from playing the Fillmore with Dreams [the jazz- rock group from the early ‘70s].) Anyway, we had stumbled into the very first public performance of the Mahavishnu Orchestra playing most, if not all, of the tunes from Inner Mounting Flame. We went on to play several tours with them but that was, by far and away, the best I ever heard them, or anybody else for that matter.